AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

I'm already at 9.1.008 and am having the same problem. Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file and the hard drive keeps thrashing. I've let it run up to 5 hours and nothing seems to get it going again.

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

Try running your AV scan in "Safe Mode with Networking" as described below. If it gets all the way through, then reboot into normal mode and run it again and see if it gets through.

1) Disconnect from the the Internet just to be safe.
2) Reboot into Safe Mode, by tapping F8 function key during boot up. When prompted,
choose "Safe Mode with Networking" (not just plain Safe Mode; I think the "networking" part is necessary for the ZA UI to be fully functional)
3) Manually launch ZA if it doesn't autostart in safe mode
4) Once ZA icon is visible in the systray, run your AV Scan (hopefully it won't stick)
5) Reboot into normal mode
6) Run AV Scan again in normal mode and see if it gets all the way thru.

For me, when mine had been sticking, that somehow allowed it to get all the way thru in safe mode. And once it got past the file in question, it never got stuck anymore. Hopefully it will work for you, too, but there haven't been enough people to use this method to know for sure if it works or is anecdotal. It did work for me, though.

PS--If an AV scan sticks, continuing to run it for "hours" or even past several minutes is not going to change anything. After a few minutes you can assume it's not going to go anywhere, unless it's scanning a multi-gig file.

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

No joy. Did a clean uninstall of ZoneAlarm ES, reinstalled with no errors. Rebooted in Safe with networking mode and did the virus signature update and then ran the scan. Still stuck on the same .dll file, although the hard drive continues to thrash. Have to hard reboot to get the machine back each time.

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

OK. I've checked several files and the scan just stops at another file down the line. I've gotten up to 73% once, but the last run stopped at 65% on a file I already flagged not to scan. I'm not sure if you have to recheck all these files each time or if the checks are sticky.

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

Have tried reinstalling using a fresh downloaded install file. Always use the uninstall file with the /clean option turned on to remove ZoneAlarm, reboot, and then, manually removed any residual registry entries referring to ZoneAlarm. Then reboot and reinstall, and then try to run a scan from Safe Mode with Networking. Same results. Stops at some file in the Windows directory. Flagging them as exceptions to the scan just moves the problem to another file. I suspect that the virus signature files are either incomplete or corrupted. (Just guessing on that.) I never get any error messages on any of these problems.

Am getting a bit frustrated. I've never had problems with ZoneAlarm on any of my other machines or this one.

Unless you are infected by malware or rootkits, it looks like more an issue with the HD, files, partition or any executable freezing the access to the file(s) while performing the scan
You may want to scan your system with mbam, superantispyware and Dr.Web to be sure you are not infected by malware or rootkits. See here for download locations.

Re: AV Scan runs to 49% complete, freezes on a .dll file

No infections or rootkits. Flagged each file in the target list as they stopped the scanner and the scan ran to completion at last after 4 different files were flagged. If I unflag them, they stop the scanner again. So, at present, the scanner works, but with files flagged. No errors are reported.